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By the World Health Organisation.

The goal of universal health coverage is to ensure that all people obtain the health services they need without suffering financial hardship when paying for them.

For a community or country to achieve universal health coverage, several factors must be in place, including:
1.A strong, efficient, well-run health system that meets priority health needs through people-centred integrated care (including services for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, noncommunicable diseases, maternal and child health) by:
informing and encouraging people to stay healthy and prevent illness;
detecting health conditions early;
having the capacity to treat disease; and
helping patients with rehabilitation.
2.Affordability – a system for financing health services so people do not suffer financial hardship when using them. This can be achieved in a variety of ways.
3.Access to essential medicines and technologies to diagnose and treat medical problems.
4.A sufficient capacity of well-trained, motivated health workers to provide the services to meet patients’ needs based on the best available evidence.

It also requires recognition of the critical role played by all sectors in assuring human health, including transport, education and urban planning.

Universal health coverage has a direct impact on a population’s health. Access to health services enables people to be more productive and active contributors to their families and communities. It also ensures that children can go to school and learn. At the same time, financial risk protection prevents people from being pushed into poverty when they have to pay for health services out of their own pockets. Universal health coverage is thus a critical component of sustainable development and poverty reduction, and a key element of any effort to reduce social inequities. Universal coverage is the hallmark of a government’s commitment to improve the wellbeing of all its citizens.

Universal coverage is firmly based on the WHO constitution of 1948 declaring health a fundamental human right and on the Health for All agenda set by the Alma-Ata declaration in 1978. Equity is paramount. This means that countries need to track progress not just across the national population but within different groups (e.g. by income level, sex, age, place of residence, migrant status and ethnic origin).

Major Changes to the Provision of Health Services in Ireland – Health (Amendment) Act 2013.

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The Dáil (Irish parliament) rather covertly passed legislation into law – the Health (Amendment) Act 2013 immediately before the Dáil summer recess of 2013.  This means there is obviously something under-hand afoot!  The Health (Amendment) Act 2013 received very little by way of publicity or civic public debate.  This situation is disastrous as the Health (Amendment) Act 2013 will have a MAJOR impact on the delivery of health services and on the cost of health insurance in Ireland in the years going forward.

In summarising, this Act provides for two accommodation designations in Public Hospitals:-

  1. Single Occupancy Rooms
  2. Multi Occupancy Rooms

This new legislation has removed the former Private and Semi Private and Public categories of hospital accommodation.

This will mean that patients in future can be allocated a semi private room or a bed in a public ward and the charge for the bed to the health insurer will remain the same.

The former system provided that public hospitals could only “ring fence” 20% of the public hospital beds for privately insured patients but now all beds can be classified in this way if they are occupied by a person who has private health insurance.

Of far greater significance from a cost perspective will be the issue of all patients in Public Hospitals with private health insurance – their medical insurers will have to pay the relevant accommodation fees depending on the room they occupy.

Up to now all citizens of the State had an automatic entitlement to a bed in a public hospital especially if they were admitted through the Accident and Emergency Department with the State covering the cost.  In the case of “elective” procedures such as hip or knee replacement or Gardaí who suffer injuries on duty – those without private health insurance are placed on the public waiting list and find themselves waiting months to years for their surgery.  These changes will probably extend such waiting times to a much longer delay.

People pay for the entitlement to a public hospital bed through our PRSI and USC deductions which are major deductions from pay and pensions.  It will be even more important from now on to hold private health insurance to ensure speedier access to urgent medical care.

The cost of this new arrangement when implemented in full is very difficult to calculate at this early stage – the main insurers such as VHI are talking about premium increases of 20% and upwards to fund it.  There are on-going discussions with the Department of Health and Children and all interested parties with a view to phasing in these changes to ease the cost pressures on medical insurers and avoid these major subscription increases.

Sneaky ulterior covert action by our beloved self-interested political authorities raked in typical underhand creativity on behalf of cronies and gravy-train provisioning for the elites.  I will never understand how the decent people of Ireland accept the governance of untrusted self-interested politicians and allow such people and questionable defective political organisations to manage the nation.  It does not make one ounce of sense!

Nobody trusts a politician!

End.

Fri 06 Sep 2013 0603 GMT Daylight Time Wk. 36.

Read the Health (Amendment) Act 2013

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